All Work and a Little Play

The Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc’s latest furniture collection is called Self-Discipline, but the three limited-edition home-office pieces that debuted in Milan last April hardly evoke chaining oneself to the desk for the daily grind. “I wanted to introduce a certain type of elegance and emotion into furniture that is usually very technically dominated,” Zupanc says. Indeed, her take on working from home is both elegant and playful, while remaining eminently functional. Her Homework Table, for instance, incorporates an enormous accordion file in place of desktop shelving. A small brass crank opens or closes the file, allowing the user to tuck papers out of sight for a clutter-free work surface. Brass caps on the slender aluminum legs add to a subtle sense of luxury—although Zupanc doesn’t particularly like to apply the word luxury to her designs. “I want to create objects that have a timeless elegance,” she says. “I try to design things that can be inherited, or that at least have the option of real longevity.” Here, Zupanc describes the particulars of her Homework Table, which is available from Rossana Orlandi in Milan.